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The ‘Trends in Federal Enterprise Bargaining’ report for October-December 2017 was released by the Department of Employment in the first week of May 2018.

If you have enterprise agreement negotiations coming up in 2018, this data may be useful for benchmarking.

The latest report reveals:

Across the country, New South Wales recorded the highest average annual wages increase (AAWI) with 3.4% for the quarter, compared to the Northern Territory with the lowest at 1.3%.

The construction industry recorded the highest AAWI for the December quarter (4.7%); whereas the mining industry recorded the lowest (1.8 %).

As a general trend, wage growth continues across both private and public sectors. For federal enterprise agreements approved in the December quarter the AAWI was 2.5%, up from the last quarter (September 2017); yet down from the same quarter in the previous year (December 2016).

Table 7 of the report is particularly useful, showing the AAWI by industry for enterprise agreements approved during the December 2017 quarter.

For the manufacturing industry, the AAWI was 2.5% – up 0.1% from the previous three quarters.

For the mining industry, the AAWI was 1.8% – down 0.1% from the previous quarter.

For the construction industry, the AAWI was 4.7% – up 1.6% from the previous quarter.

For the electricity, gas, water and waste services industries, the AAWI was 2.9% – up 0.6% from the previous quarter.

For the retail industry, the AAWI was 2.3% – up 1.2% from the previous quarter.

For the transport, postal and warehousing industries, the AAWI was 2.4% – up 0.4% from the previous quarter.

For the administrative and support services industries, the AAWI was 2.4% – down 0.6% from the previous quarter.

For the financial and insurance services industries, the AAWI was 2.6% – with no change from the previous quarter.

For the information, media and telecommunications services industries, the AAWI was 2.1% – up 0.2% from the previous quarter.